spend on the streamer or on the DAC ?

@melvinjames 

There will certainly be new DAC and streamer iterations from every manufacturer out there. Good sound now will still be good sound when the next version comes out.

wise words

i am playing a frank van alstine fet valve topp dac from 1998 with philips r2r chip and 12ax7's -- can't read anything but redbook bitrate but the things sounds soooooooo ridiculously good... 

I've across an offer to buy a LINN AKURATE DS for 1800 euro (showroom model). Sounds tempting as the listed price price is 5550 euro new (apprently the shop is discontinuing it's dealer relationship with LINN, for commercial -not quality -reason,s and so are liquidating the stock).Any useful insights ? LINN looks like one of those manufacturers that like to go their own way- I like that on philosophical grounds, but the sonic rewards have to be there!

@lalitk i use a rockna wavedream net se
i love it and am happy to talk about it on another thread if you tag me or you can dm

@olica

unless i am mistaken the linn akurate ds is a 10 year old product

in the digital media/streaming world that is like dinosaurs walking the earth - get something cheaper and newer

only as good as the weak link is the short answer, but I would start at getting the DAC right.  I think they are to the point where you can get a reasonably priced great performer with very good capabilities and not worry about it being outdated for a while now.  my solution recently in that regard was the Denafrips AresII.
Streamers are a bit more complex of an issue as there are two aspects that weigh on the decision and one of those is ever evolving.  First is the overall capabilities and specs of the unit.  There are enough dedicated streamers out there that making sure it's of quality shouldn't be hard.  The 2nd more challenging aspect for me anyway was satisfying the software side of things.  This brand allows this, the brand only does this etc.  The BluOS of the Node is really one of the more versatile platforms and once you use it, it is difficult to go another route.  I ended up going with Roon, but even that doesn't allow me to integrate Spotify or now Amazon HD Music.  I could live without either, but I am so far down the rabbit hole with Spotify, and the family is on the account, I cant just drop it.  I therefore use my Tidal mostly which at the end of the day is perfectly fine.
Initially I used the AresII with the Node2 but I knew I wasn't tapping the Ares full potential having to use Spidif/digital coax to connect them.  For now I just set up a new RaspberryPi4b with an up graded Power Supply running RoPieeeXL as an endpoint for Roon.  This allows me to use USB and get higher res and DSD level streams that the Areas s capable of.
So at the end of the day when I went thru the process it seemed like the software/user interface was a more challenging issue related to the streamer side of it all.  And that aspect seems to be changing weekly too so I wasn't into putting a lot of $ into the streamer at this point when the RPi is really outstanding anyway.

I feel NAD is really missing the boat not taking the BluOS into a dedicated line of streamers.  They would kill it.  But like most larger companies right now, they seem to all be heading toward putting everything into one box.